The present invention relates to a suspension system for a ceiling mount of a surgical microscope.
In operating rooms for neurosurgery or for ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery, tomographs are increasingly being used alongside the usual surgical microscopes and illumination and navigation devices. These magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners are integrated directly into the operating room and thus permit an investigation, shortly before the surgical intervention, of the site to be operated on. Because the MRI is integrated into the operating room, the latter is configured as a Faraday cage, and the larger masses of metal present in the operating room have an influence on the image quality of the MRI. It is therefore necessary to adjust the MRI as a function of the metal masses. Subsequent changes in the location of larger metal masses require a readjustment of the MRI.
A further difficulty is the fact that there exists around the MRI a so-called 50-gauss zone in which no metal objects whatsoever must be present. Otherwise these metal objects would be excited to vibrate, and a risk of damage exists. For these safety reasons, no movable stands or components whatsoever are permitted in such operating rooms. All devices attached to stands, such as a surgical microscope, illumination elements, navigation devices, and anesthesia devices, are therefore attached in stationary fashion on the ceiling of the operating room. This is the only way to effectively prevent these units from inadvertently being brought into the 50-gauss zone around the MRI, and thus creating a risk of damage.
A further problem now arises from the fact that because the ceiling mounts are arranged in stationary fashion, only one settable working position is possible. Because of the limited extension range of the individual ceiling mounts, only very restricted optimization of the ceiling-mount arrangement for the microscope and lights in the room may exist, in terms of the surgeon's various positions with respect to the patient. There exists no position for the ceiling mount of the surgical microscope, and for the ceiling mounts of the operating lights, in which every type of operation in the field of neurosurgery or ENT surgery is possible.
In other operating rooms, rail systems on which the surgical microscope or an item of medical equipment is displaceably suspended have already been attached to the ceiling. Rail systems of this kind are known from the documents DE 6949023 U and DE 6949024 U. A disadvantage here is that such rail systems are, in principle, open systems that are not completely sterile. This is not possible in a neurosurgical operating room.
Also known, from WO 2005 087105 A2 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,119 A, are rail systems attached to the ceiling that comprise a carrier plate displaceable along the rail system. The mount of a medical device is arranged on the carrier plate. Here again, it is disadvantageous that the rail systems are of open configuration and thus do not represent completely sterile systems. This is not possible in a neurosurgical operating room.
As indicated above, flexible and shiftable floor stands for the surgical microscope must be excluded from this type of operating room with MRI.